Dynamo Island is an account of a contemporary ideal world set in an Ireland-sized island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. It expresses the possibility of a modern society living in harmonious ecological balance with its environment. The ethos of the place is built around the notion of the human being as a dynamo managing and self-regulating energy in a way that draws on without harming the natural world. One of the island's main features is that there are no cars, only bicycles along with a comprehensive public tram and electric train network.

Through a close analysis of key texts and the larger historical contexts within which they were composed, this study explores George Berkeley's engagement with the social and economic threats facing Ireland and Britain, highlighting his belief that virtue and religion could play crucial roles in alleviating these problems.

Review: "Recovering Bishop Berkeley goes some way toward dispelling the notion of Berkeley as a disconnected, abstract philosopher and recovering the bishop who was very much engaged by the social and economic questions of his day." The Scriblerian

Through a close analysis of key texts and the larger historical contexts within which they were composed, this study explores George Berkeley's engagement with the social and economic threats facing Ireland and Britain, highlighting his belief that virtue and religion could play crucial roles in alleviating these problems.

Gestures in history: a cultural history of gestures from antiquity to the present: CIP.

Published

Polity Press1991

ISBN

0745607861

0801427444 (Cornell University Press)

080148023X (Cornell University Press) (pbk)

Summary

People are often inclined to view our gestures as something "natural". Yet a closer look at history tells us that they change from one period to another, and that these changes can provide us with vital insights into social and cultural developments of the past. This book sets out to explore such changes in the development of gestures - from modes of walking and oratorial gesture in Greece and Rome to the origin of the modern handshake, from the arm akimbo in Renaissance portraiture to early modern table manners, from Spanish tavern sociability to the modern kiss. These discrete accounts place the history of gestures in their wider cultural context and together form a vivid picture of life and manners through the centuries.

"This is a fascinating exploration of inter-cultural history and there is nothing like it in the English-language scholarship. In this regard, The Reading of Russian Literature in China is both timely and long overdue. Gamsa's ability to interweave discussions of Chinese, Russian, and Soviet exchanges in the midst of revolution and war is masterful. It is a work of extensive research and rich detail--a significant project. The book will be welcome to scholars and graduate students of Chinese studies, inter-cultural history of Russia and China, comparative literature generally, and Communist literature specifically."--Douglas Howland, David D. Buck Professor of Chinese History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

A comparative cultural and intellectual history, this study treats the reception of Russian literature in twentieth-century China, highlighting its elevation as a model for personal behaviour as well as for collective revolutionary struggle--"a moral example and manual of practice." Analysing the Chinese reading of Russian nineteenth-century literature and early Soviet fiction, Gamsa explains what led readers to a particularly close engagement with this literature and examines in fascinating detail the forms that this engagement took. Addressed to all those interested in the passage of ideas between cultures, this book makes an innovative contribution to research in modern Chinese and Russian history as well as comparative literature and book history. --Book Jacket.

This book traces the profound influence that Russian literature, which was tied inseparably to the political victory of the Russian revolution, had on China during a period that saw the collapse of imperial rule and the rise of the Communist Party.

Review: 'This meticulously researched book, which draws on both Russian and Chinese archival materials, will be of great interest to all scholars looking for new paradigms by which to compare literatures and cultures.' - Slavic Review 'Mark Gamsa not only examines the Sino-Russian cultural encounter more closely than anyone heretofore has done, but also reflects on it perceptively from the viewpoint of a new century. While the implications of undervaluing the individual usually appear in the context of collectivization, industrialization, and other Communist Party led socioeconomic transformations, Gamsa calls attention to their importance in literature and art. His discussion leads on to interesting reflections on what literature is, whether it really can change society and history, and in what, if any, sense it can teach and guide readers. Reading, he thinks, is a one-on-one experience in which an individual writer speaks to an individual reader, often across distances of time and space, and even long after the writer's death. Literature is written by individuals for individuals. Its impact occurs in one mind at a time and is not a mass phenomenon.' China Review International '...not only does the book shed new light on the study of modern Chinese literature in a comparative paradigm, but it also makes a unique and much-needed contribution towards a better understanding of Chinese intellectual history, Sino-Soviet relations, and intercultural exchanges at the state and personal levels.' - Yan Li, Northeastern University, Modern Language Review 'Despite the close ties between China and the Soviet Union, few sinologists in the West have so far been able to draw on a knowledge of both languages. Hence this is a welcome contribution, and one which can be developed further.' - Comparativ

A comparative cultural and intellectual history, this study treats the reception of Russian literature in twentieth-century China, highlighting its elevation as a model for personal behaviour as well as for collective revolutionary struggle--"a moral example and manual of practice." Analysing the Chinese reading of Russian nineteenth-century literature and early Soviet fiction, Gamsa explains what led readers to a particularly close engagement with this literature and examines in fascinating detail the forms that this engagement took. Addressed to all those interested in the passage of ideas between cultures, this book makes an innovative contribution to research in modern Chinese and Russian history as well as comparative literature and book history. --Book Jacket.

A comparative cultural and intellectual history, this study treats the reception of Russian literature in twentieth-century China, highlighting its elevation as a model for personal behaviour as well as for collective revolutionary struggle--"a moral example and manual of practice." Analysing the Chinese reading of Russian nineteenth-century literature and early Soviet fiction, Gamsa explains what led readers to a particularly close engagement with this literature and examines in fascinating detail the forms that this engagement took. Addressed to all those interested in the passage of ideas between cultures, this book makes an innovative contribution to research in modern Chinese and Russian history as well as comparative literature and book history. --Book Jacket.

This book traces the profound influence that Russian literature, which was tied inseparably to the political victory of the Russian revolution, had on China during a period that saw the collapse of imperial rule and the rise of the Communist Party.

A comparative cultural and intellectual history, this study treats the reception of Russian literature in twentieth-century China, highlighting its elevation as a model for personal behaviour as well as for collective revolutionary struggle - "a moral example and manual of practice". Analyzing the Chinese reading of Russian nineteenth-century literature and early Soviet fiction, Gamsa explains what led readers to a particularly close engagement with this literature and examines in fascinating detail the forms that this engagement took. Addressed to all those interested in the passage of ideas between cultures, this book makes an innovative contribution to research in modern Chinese and Russian history and literature, comparative literature, and book history.

"This is a fascinating exploration of inter-cultural history and there is nothing like it in the English-language scholarship. In this regard, The Reading of Russian Literature in China is both timely and long overdue. Gamsa's ability to interweave discussions of Chinese, Russian, and Soviet exchanges in the midst of revolution and war is masterful. It is a work of extensive research and rich detail--a significant project. The book will be welcome to scholars and graduate students of Chinese studies, inter-cultural history of Russia and China, comparative literature generally, and Communist literature specifically."--Douglas Howland, David D. Buck Professor of Chinese History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

A comparative cultural and intellectual history, this study treats the reception of Russian literature in twentieth-century China, highlighting its elevation as a model for personal behaviour as well as for collective revolutionary struggle--"a moral example and manual of practice." Analysing the Chinese reading of Russian nineteenth-century literature and early Soviet fiction, Gamsa explains what led readers to a particularly close engagement with this literature and examines in fascinating detail the forms that this engagement took. Addressed to all those interested in the passage of ideas between cultures, this book makes an innovative contribution to research in modern Chinese and Russian history as well as comparative literature and book history. --Book Jacket.

This text traces the profound influence that Russian literature - which was tied inseparably to the political victory of the Russian revolution - had on China during a period that saw the collapse of imperial rule and the rise of the Communist Party.

"This is a fascinating exploration of inter-cultural history and there is nothing like it in the English-language scholarship. In this regard, The Reading of Russian Literature in China is both timely and long overdue. Gamsa's ability to interweave discussions of Chinese, Russian, and Soviet exchanges in the midst of revolution and war is masterful. It is a work of extensive research and rich detail--a significant project. The book will be welcome to scholars and graduate students of Chinese studies, inter-cultural history of Russia and China, comparative literature generally, and Communist literature specifically."--Douglas Howland, David D. Buck Professor of Chinese History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

A comparative cultural and intellectual history, this study treats the reception of Russian literature in twentieth-century China, highlighting its elevation as a model for personal behaviour as well as for collective revolutionary struggle--"a moral example and manual of practice." Analysing the Chinese reading of Russian nineteenth-century literature and early Soviet fiction, Gamsa explains what led readers to a particularly close engagement with this literature and examines in fascinating detail the forms that this engagement took. Addressed to all those interested in the passage of ideas between cultures, this book makes an innovative contribution to research in modern Chinese and Russian history as well as comparative literature and book history. --Book Jacket.

Formerly the viceregal capital of Spain's vast South American empire, Lima is today a sprawling metropolis struggling to cope with a population of eight million. Located on the coast between the Andean foothills and the Pacific Ocean, it is many cities in one, with an indigenous past, an old colonial heart, the port of Callao, and turn-of-the-century quarters modelled on Paris. Leafy suburbs like San Isidro and tranquil seaside communities such as Barranco contrast with ever-expanding shantytowns. Lima has always dominated national life, as the centre of political and economic power. Long a stronghold of the European elite, the city is now home to millions of Peruvians from the Andean region as well as the descendants of African slaves and migrants from Europe, China and Japan. As a popular saying puts it, the whole of Peru is now in Lima. James Higgins explores the city's history and evolving identity as reflected in its architecture, literature, painting and music. Tracing its trajectory from colonial enclave to modern metropolis, he reveals how the capital now embodies the diversity and dynamism of Peru itself. CITY OF HISTORY: ceremonial sites and museums of pre-Hispanic antiquities; colonial churches and mansions; the Museum of the Inquisition; monuments to the heroes of Independence. CITY OF CULTURE: pre-Columbian textiles, pottery and goldwork; Baroque architecture and art; writers such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Alfredo Bryce Echenique; painters and sculptors; a vibrant popular culture. CITY OF MULTICULTURAL EXCHANGE: the indigenous legacy; the imposition of Spanish culture; African slaves; European and Asian immigrants; mass migration from the provinces.

Review: A tour de force in more senses than one, James Higgins's new book offers a wonderful, synchronic as well as diachronic journey around Lima. Part I, 'The Strangest, Saddest City' (the description is borrowed from the narrator of Melville's 'Moby Dick'), introduces us to the setting, climate, and history of Lima, its painful independence, and equally painful emergence into the modern era. Part II offers a nicely balanced history of the pre-Hispanic cultures, including the Nazca, Moche, and Chimu. Part III, 'City of the Kings', takes its point of departure from the founding of the city by Pizarro on 18 January 1535, and offers some carefully choreographed insights into the culture which flowed from that event, including the early planning of the centre as a grid of streets ('Pizarro's draughtboard'), the pageantry of the festivals in colonial times, the role of the merchants and 'encomenderos', the churches, the elite and the subalterns (such as the Afro-Peruvians). Most interesting of all, Higgins points to the gradual emergence of a 'criollo' consciousness which coalesced around subaltern groups as well as local saints such as Santa Rosa de Lima. Part IV focuses on the ramifications of the Independence movement, San Martin's liberation, the War of the Pacific, the Guano boom, the arrival of the immigrants from China, Japan, Britain, and Italy, the growth of a 'criollo' musical tradition, as well as a number of sections on important state institutions such as the National Library. The past is brought alive by Higgins's astute references to everyday life during the period; typical is the ditty which circulated in London in the 1840s making fun of how the British company Anthony Gibbs and Sons made their money during the Guano Boom: 'The House of Gibbs made their dibs / selling the turds of foreign birds' (p. 113). Part V homes in on the expanding metropolis, and in particular the migration of the inhabitants of the Andes down to the capital in the 1960s and 1970s, and shows how this affected the city region by region. There are some fascinating sections on the growth of the folk saint, Sarita Colonia, as an icon for the shanty-dwellers, Limenan cuisine (which made me feel hungry!), and the growth of different styles of contemporary 'alternative' music (huayno, chicha, tecnocumbia, chicha lite), concluding with some words from that master of Peruvian humour, Bryce Echenique, who once complained about how everything had changed in Lima: 'Everything is chicha, our souls are chicha, being eccentric is chicha, corruption is chicha, moral degradation is chicha, and of course the sociologists who invented the word chicha are chicha' (p. 227). What is so impressive about this book is the way it allows the history to emerge so effortlessly while we take the tour. An entertaining, erudite tour of the historical complexities as well as the nooks and crannies of that wonderful city -- peppered with striking quotes which make the past come alive -- this book is a must-read. Stephen M. Hart, University College London.

Formerly the viceregal capital of Spain's vast South American empire, Lima is today a sprawling metropolis, struggling to cope with a population of eight million. James Higgins explores the city's history and evolving identity reflected in its architecture, literature, painting and music.

The essays in this book are gathered together from the realms of art, literature, history, archaeology, philosophy and science. Together they weave a picture that gives us new insights into the mirror as a material object and as an image in art and texts. This interdisciplinary and innovative book raises important issues about the material life of an object and its intimate interrelations with socio-cultural imagery. Perceptions of the workings of our cognitive processes and of our subjectivity are shown to be dynamically interwoven with the technological and socio-cultural matrices of particular periods, whilst longer term continuities in the understanding and employment of the mirror reflect underlying continuities in the capacities and constraints of mirrors and of human subjects. This book demonstrates the active role imagery and technologies have always played in our thoughts, lives and worlds.

Review: "The Book of the Mirror contains a sterling and thought-provoking set of papers. They are all well written and are in an accessible style." -Professor Charles D. Laughlin, Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture, 5:1, 2012